Digvijaya seeks ‘close vigil’ on RSS

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday sought a “close vigil” on the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS),saying that banning the organisation was not possible. “How can it be banned when it has some 150 associations of it…it is not possible…but it is necessary that a close vigil be maintained on it”,he told reporters in Lucknow.

Digvijaya’s statement comes a day after the arrest of a RSS worker,Kamal Chauhan,on charges of planting a bomb on Samjhauta Express. In reply to a question about the timing of Chauhan’s arrest by the NIA,Digvijaya said the arrest had nothing to do with the UP Assembly elections. He said the first arrest of a RSS functionary involved in “terror” activities took place in 2002. He also said that if the person arrested would have been a Muslim,the RSS would have had a different attitude towards him.

The Congress leader also targeted the Bajrang Dal,comparing it with SIMI. “Both Bajrang Dal and SIMI are faces of the same coin”,just like “Mohan Bhagwat and Maulana Bukhari.” Accusing both the outfits of being hand-in-glove,Singh said that when his government was in power in Madhya Pradesh,he had sought to ban both the outfits but the central government of NDA did not ban Bajrang Dal.